November has
come and gone so quickly! I can’t
believe it has been a whole month since we held our Halloween event “Fun and
Frights Night”. Time sure flies when
you’re having fun…
Last weekend,
we held our final volunteer weekend of the year and a brilliant team of willing
people turned up, ready to ‘Get Mucky’!
We had a very productive weekend and got a lot of jobs done.
With all the
rain we’d had recently, we needed to do something about the gateways at the
beginning of the Farm Trail, they were beginning to turn into a bit of a
bog! Some of volunteer team put in
pathways using Roman road builders’ techniques. They began by digging out a
deep hole, put in a layer of big rocks which were compacted down and then covered those rocks with a deep layer of gravel. They finished
up with a ‘plate basher’ (I’m sure that’s the technical term!) and made sure
that the pathway was level.
Once all this
hard work was finished, we were so worried about the cows trampling all over
it, that the team then put up a small post and rail fence, just big enough to
stop the cows, but still allowing the sheep space to get underneath and
continue to graze that area. It looks
fantastic!
Another team
went down to the river banks and planted some Alder trees…unfortunately, with
all the rain, the River Tern swelled so much on the Saturday night that the
saplings were all but drowned! We are
keeping an eye on the little trees and hoping they will survive.
Meanwhile,
the rest of the gang created some lovely wooden shapes depicting wildlife and
plants that could be found around the farm. These will be put out around the
Farm Trail in the new year.
These
weekends are not only about strength and skills – they are about meeting new
people, learning and sharing and above all, HAVING FUN!
The next
chance to come and Get Mucky at Fordhall will be 16th – 17th
February – give me a call for more information!
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| 2 week old piglets! |
I couldn't help but take lots of photos of these gorgeous piglets who were out enjoying what little sun we had on Sunday!
